Six years since his world had gone dim.
And there Lily stood at the end of the hallway at the swanky hotel in Hollywood where the band was staying after they had played earlier that night at a dive bar about a mile away.
Her face frozen in horror and her body rocking back with shock.
She wore this super short glitzy gold dress and super high heels. A ton of makeup. Jewelry.
But there was death in her eyes.
Hopelessness.
Despair.
And with the fear that blanched her entire face, Richard knew immediately she hadn’t started a new life.
He just…felt it.
Sure of it in an instant.
Six years of torment flashed through his mind.
She started to turn and run.
“Lily,” Richard shouted behind her, racing down the hall to get to her. In those sky-high heels, it only took a few sprinted strides for him to catch up. “Stop, Lily.”
She heaved out in desperation, pushing herself faster, turning a corner and dashing down another hall.
Richard snatched her by the wrist.
She cried out when he turned her to face him, the girl backing against the wall. Those eyes were wild. Feral.
“Lily, I’m not gonna hurt you.”
Her entire face pinched in grief.
“Fuck. Lily. What happened to you? Tell me what happened.”
She looked both ways down the deserted hall. “You can’t be here. Someone’s gonna see you.”
“Who?” He was asking it, his stomach already sinking to the floor.
Awareness right there.
Though it didn’t quite make sense. Didn’t add up.
“Please tell me, Lily, and don’t fuckin’ lie. I see you. I see you’re hurting. I see you’re terrified.”
Her chin trembled, and she was looking both ways again, her voice dropped to the lowest whisper when she looked back at him, “Richard. I can’t talk to you. Can’t be seen with you.”
“Why?” he demanded.
“Because I no longer belong to myself,” she wheezed.
Rage.
It was instant.
He edged in closer like he could shroud her in protection.
He never should have let her get out of that cab. Never.
“What are you saying?”
The words started to spill from her mouth, “It was Martin Jennings that wanted me, Richard. That night when he took us out to dinner, he took one look at me, and decided he was going to keep me. He used Shawn to get me there.”
“But that fucker is rotting in jail.”
Her head shook. “It didn’t matter. I became his, which meant I became Lester Ford’s property, because everybody belongs to him.” Her voice dropped even lower on that.
“Lester Ford?”
Richard knew the name instantly.
He was one of the richest men in the world.
Politics.
Oil.
It was well known his hands were in just about everything.
And Richard had always thought he was about as seedy as they came.
Currently, he was a senator from California who was throwing in a bid for presidency.
“Mylton Records has always been a front for him. When Martin went down years ago? That was Lester throwing him under the bus. He made Martin take the fall when one of their trafficking routes was discovered. Lester got off, absolved of any connection, and Martin went down. When he did, Karl took his place.”
Richard knew that part, at least. In the mayhem of Martin being arrested right after that fateful night, Carolina George had slipped through the cracks. Their contract stalled.
They’d used the bad press as an excuse to pass on the offer. On top of that, they’d “lost” their drummer and the band was in transition. It’d been easy to convince Emily and Rhys that Shawn had dumped them for bigger and better things.
“I don’t understand how you ended up back here?” Richard pressed, trying to piece together the fragments of that time.
Resigned sadness shook her head. “They wanted me, Richard. Don’t you get it? They told me if I didn’t come back, they’d take my sister instead. That they would make you pay, too.”
His insides splintered apart.
Christ.
She’d been protecting Violet that morning. When she’d told him to leave. When she’d made up some lie about restarting her life, she was condemning herself to hell.
Scared for those who she loved most.
Manipulated into taking on this life.
Sorrow collided with the rage.
He should have known when he found out she’d left Daisy with Violet all those years ago. Should have read it for what it was. He should have known. Fuck, he should have known.
“Come with me.”
Fear blanketed her face. “I can’t.”
“Yes, you can. Let’s go, right now.”
A door opened somewhere down the hall. Horror rushed through her body. This palpable, emanating fear that ate through her being. “You don’t understand what will happen to me if I leave. They’ll find me, and my fate will be much worse than it is now. I’ve got to go.”
“Where are you staying? Where are they keeping you?” he demanded.
She choked out a whimpered cry. “At the same house.”
Footsteps echoed from afar, and she wrangled away from him. She started heading back in the direction she’d come, and he took her by the hand again.